[18] Bobbie Gentry, ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’

Country girl turned pop crooner, Gentry took this tidy, sweetly judged Bacharach and David song to the toppermost of the poppermost. It’s a lovely mix of playground truth – “What do you get when you kiss a guy? You get enough germs to catch pneumonia” – and genuine heartbreak – “broken up and battered that’s what you get, a heart that’s shattered” – delivered with chin-jutting defiance that never quite convinces. I don’t suppose it’s meant to.

The final, hopeful piano chords, mimed by Junior in the back of the car this morning, suggest tentative steps into something new.